DIOGENES: In Search Of An Honest Politician!

DIOGENES invites you to pull up a chair on this rainy day and read
posts from around the world.
The writing may lean to the right...but that's the way Diogenes wants it!
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but Diogenes rarely changes his! WELCOME!

Friday, August 19, 2016

Surprise: 'Non-Existent' Voter Fraud Strikes Again, in Four States

Literally every time I write about voter fraud, or a judge up-ends a popular and democratically-enacted voter ID law, lefties come out of the woodwork to insist that such measures amount to racist "voter suppression," cynically masquerading as a policy solution to a problem that doesn't exist in reality. While some on the Right do overplay the threat and extent of fraud -- an impulse that can feed counter-productive, conspiratorial thinking -- the notion that it's a totally fake problem is just patently false. Liberals must be challenged aggressively every time they make this claim: Fraud absolutely exists, and they're apparently willing to tolerate it. Why? Setting aside the new examples for a moment, feel free to go back and check out these examples from Florida, North Carolina, California, and Ohio -- among many others. I needn't remind you that three of those are battleground states. Now, onto the latest instances, as flagged and summarized at the Daily Signal

Democratic Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton is getting ready to celebrate her husband’s 70th birthday this evening on Martha’s Vineyard, according to a Clinton aide speaking to CNN.
Obama is also vacationing on the island, although it is unclear whether he and Michelle Obama plan to join the Clintons for the momentous occasion.
Clinton’s trip coincides with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s visit to Louisiana to highlight the suffering of local citizens after the state was hit by unprecedented flooding in the area.

Trump Plays the Role of President in Louisiana

Trump Plays the Role of President in Louisiana GOP nominee tours disaster area while Obama, Clinton won't be parted from politics and rest
In a brilliant maneuver perfectly timed to complement his campaign revamp, Republican nominee Donald Trump today landed in Louisiana to witness first-hand the devastation wrought by flooding not seen there since Hurricane Katrina pummeled the Gulf Coast in 2005.
Trump’s arrival on the scene helps him on a number of levels. Most importantly, it provides a dramatic contrast to Hillary Clinton and President Obama, both of whom have neglected to visit a region where more than a dozen have died and tens of thousands have been forced out of their homes.
Acting like a leader who is there for average Americans is exactly what propelled Trump to the Republican nomination.
Trump’s move to see for himself the plight of disaster victims lends him a presidential aura that critics say he has been lacking due to off-the-cuff remarks that have, at times, sounded as crass and immature. Obama, the actual president, has responded absurdly, refusing to budge from the Martha’s Vineyard golf courses where he is playing nearly daily with celebrities and wealthy friends — even to issue a public statement, let alone visit the unfolding tragedy.

Hillary campaign indicates fascism will have a large role in her Presidency

Hillary Clinton's campaign has offered us a glimpse into her potential administration. It's clear that fascism will play no small part. Clinton's campaign has vowed to crush the opposition press.

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign has sent out a fundraising email arguing the website Breitbart News has no “right to exist,” and suggests that if elected, the website will be shut down entirely.“We’ve had a conservative media in this country for a while,” says the email, sent Thursday and signed by deputy communications director Christina Reynolds. “I don’t always like what they have to say, but I respect their role and their right to exist Reynolds’ acknowledgment that the regular conservative media has a “right to exist,” though, is used to contrast it with Breitbart, which apparently has no such right.

Make no mistake about the intention:

One of the goals of Clinton’s campaign, Reynolds says, is to ensure Breitbart is destroyed.

This will come as no surprise to anyone who has paid any attention to Hillary over the years. Here is a sampling of some of her quotes over the years.

"We are going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.""It's time for a new beginning, for an end to government of the few, by the few, for the few, and to replace it with shared responsibility for shared prosperity."
"We can't just let business as usual go on, and that means something has to be taken away from some people."
"We have to build a political consensus and that requires people to give up a little bit of their own turf in order to create this common ground."
"I certainly think the free market has failed."
"I think it's time to send a clear message to what has become the most profitable sector in the entire economy, that they are being watched."
"What I want to do is take those profits and apply them to alternative energy."
"I really believe that it takes a village to raise a child.10"
"I also believe that every new handgun sale or transfer should be registered in a national registry...11"

Author Andrew Thomas notes the similarity of her words to those of Lenin, Stalin and obama.
Here she is letting any potential accusers know that she will make life difficult for them should they come forward:(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net ...

As Louisiana Drowns, Obama Golfs

Townhall.com ^| August 19, 2016 | Katie Pavlich Posted on 8/19/2016, 1:49:28 PM by Kaslin
In case you missed it, Louisiana is underwater and currently experiencing the worst natural disaster since Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Before Sandy, the worst natural disaster was Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Thirteen people in Louisiana are dead, thousands are displaced and nearly 90,000 people have registered for federal disaster aid. From the Red Cross:

The devastating flooding in Louisiana has forced thousands of people from their homes with just the few things they could take with them. The American Red Cross is there, providing food, shelter and relief supplies to those affected by the largest natural disaster to hit the United States since Superstorm Sandy. Early estimates predict the relief effort could cost at least $30 million, a number which could grow as more is learned about the scope and magnitude of the devastation.

Despite these facts, mainstream media oxygen for days has been soaked up by lying swimmers, the Olympics and the ongoing presidential race.
Who else is paying little attention to the flooding in Louisiana? President Obama. Where is he? On a golf course in Martha's Vineyard as the state drowns in destruction, damage and devastation.
In 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit, President George W. Bush was accused of "not caring about black people" because he failed to visit New Orleans. He avoided a visit in an effort to prevent distraction from relief efforts. When he did a flyover of the area after leaving vacation early, he was roundly criticized for being out of touch. President Obama? He gets a free pass.
Over to The Advocate:

Sometimes, presidential visits can get in the way of emergency response, doing more harm than good. But we don’t see that as a factor now that flood waters are subsiding, even if at an agonizing pace. It’s past time for the president to pay a personal visit, showing his solidarity with suffering Americans.

Like his predecessors, Obama has no doubt discovered that crises keep their own calendar, even when commanders-in-chief are trying to take some time off the clock. It’s an inconvenience of the presidency, but it’s what chief executives sign up for when they take the oath of office.

And if the president can interrupt his vacation for a swanky fundraiser for fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton, as he did on Monday, then surely he can make time to show up for a catastrophe that’s displaced thousands.

The optics of Obama golfing while Louisiana residents languished in flood waters was striking. It evoked the precedent of the passive federal response to the state’s agony in 2005, a chapter of history no one should ever repeat.

Obama, the Worst President Ever, Except Maybe for Hillary

It's one thing for "Never Trump" Republicans to criticize Donald Trump, but Democrats, the liberal media and pedestal-perched professors who have enabled President Obama and now support Hillary Clinton have no standing to do so.
President Obama set out to fundamentally transform America (read: systematically destroy America as founded). Measured in terms of accomplishing this goal, Obama has been one of the most successful presidents in history. Measured in terms of doing what is best for America, Obama undeniably ranks among the worst.
Obama's progressive defenders whitewash his record, but it is objectively horrible -- unless you either are in a fantasy world or truly consider America's comeuppance and its economic, military and cultural decline glorious developments.
With just a little more time -- darn that 22nd Amendment -- Obama could hammer those last few nails in the nation's coffin, but not to worry; he is backing a successor who promises to double down on his mischief, and he will be covering her flank as a civilian community organizer writ large -- agitating in the private sector on the national stage. What a duo!
Liberals scoff at our supposed sensationalism in depicting Obama's record, but they are the ones in fantasyland -- not us. Their judgment is so skewed that they wouldn't recognize a disastrous, perennially sluggish economy if it hit them in the face -- because it has. They wouldn't see it if Islamists were waging war on the United States, because they are and they don't. They wouldn't be alarmed if the Constitution and rule of law were under ongoing assault, because they are and they aren't. They don't care that the nuclear family is in peril, because they favor diluting traditional and gender distinctions. And they wouldn't care if the federal government were deliberately fostering dependency addiction among its citizenry and demonizing work, the work ethic, productivity and business, because it is and they enable it.
President Obama couldn't be more of a menace to this nation's interests if he were trying to be -- and thus, coupled with his stated intentions, it is reasonable to assume he is and irresponsible to downplay the suspicion.
I jampacked two long, well-documented books chronicling Obama's reign of terror, and he was just getting started. There is easily enough material for two more equally comprehensive books.
In fact, Obama has done so much that I fear the electorate will tend to forget the extent of it. When I occasionally go back and review it, I realize that half of it has disappeared from my active memory. But revisiting it is enough to make your blood boil -- and more than enough to make you understand that Hillary Clinton, the personification of Obama's third term on steroids and independently terrible in her own right, must be defeated at all costs.
In every subcategory of domestic and foreign policy, Obama has damaged America. He has turned everything upside down. Wrong is right. Bad is good. Strength is weakness. Culturally sound is culturally taboo. Economic decline is economic growth. Deliberately exploding the national debt is reducing the deficit. Destroying health care, qualitatively and quantitatively -- and as a matter of cost and choice -- is progress. Demonizing victims of terrorism and excusing terrorists is enlightened. Opening our borders to those with hostile intent toward Americans and America is compassion. Releasing coldblooded terrorist killers helps show the world how wonderful we are. Facilitating the world's evilest regime's acquiring nuclear weapons and capital to fund terrorism is a triumph of diplomacy and world peace. Fostering a war on law enforcement is an achievement for justice.
Flouting the Constitution and the rule of law shows executive leadership. Implementing provisions of the DREAM Act that Congress not only didn't approve but explicitly rejected is humanitarianism. Intervening in Libya in defiance of Congress is laudable leadership. Repeatedly apologizing for America here and on foreign soil is commendable. Smothering the economy with taxes, spending, regulation and debt and punishing small business are prudent economic policies. Presiding over the worst recovery in 70 years is sagaciously steering America out of a dire economic crisis. Perpetual malaise is a strong economic record. Impeding entitlement reform -- and thereby guaranteeing the bankruptcy of Social Security, Medicare and the United States -- is saving Social Security.
Regarding climate change as a greater threat than terrorism is sane thinking. Selectively compromising the First Amendment and gratuitously attacking the Second Amendment for the good of the cause are admirably nuanced. Squandering billions of dollars on environmental boondoggles proves good intentions. Undermining our military readiness and managing our national decline atones for our alleged misdeeds. IRS targeting of political enemies is just business as usual. Politicizing the Justice Department is social justice. Dismissing proven charges against the New Black Panther Party is racial justice. Converting NASA for Muslim outreach beats getting a man on Mars. Waging war on religious liberty releases us from the clutches of those crazy Christians. Dividing Americans on the basis of race, gender, religion and income is uniting America.
As tired as I am of the left's Machiavellian euphemisms, I could go on for hours. But please understand: Everything Obama has done is fairly and necessarily imputable to Clinton because she participated in and ratified his policies and actions and promises to do worse. In a number of areas, she already has done worse.
On top of all this, Clinton is the most opportunistically ambitious, double-dealing, corrupt fraud in the modern era.
My fear is that some, by obsessing over Trump, are overlooking just how monumentally horrible Hillary Clinton would be as president. We can't let that happen.

Louisiana Flood of 2016 and the Yangtze River Flood of 1931 Not Caused by Climate Change

The facts that natural disasters occur for reasons other than global warming, such as oceanic currents and underwater volcanic eruptions, are inconvenient details for the environmental/green growth agenda
The severe flooding in Louisiana, the result of torrential rain, the location of Baton Rouge below the sea level, and those proverbial levies that did not hold after the disaster of Katrina, destroyed 40,000 homes and 30,000 people and 1,000 pets had to be rescued.
The New York Times published a story immediately, “Flooding in the South Looks a Lot Like Climate Change,” blaming the flood on the global warming hoax created by the very profitable climate change industry.

Pressed by the F.B.I. about her email practices at the State Department, Hillary Clinton told investigators that former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell had advised her to use a personal email account
The account is included in the notes the Federal Bureau of Investigation handed over to Congress on Tuesday, relaying in detail the three-and-a-half-hour interview with Mrs. Clinton in early July that led to the decision by James B. Comey, the bureau’s director, not to pursue criminal charges against her.
The journalist Joe Conason first reported the conversation between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Powell in his coming book about Bill Clinton’s postpresidency, “Man of the World: The Further Endeavors of Bill Clinton,” which The Times received an advanced copy of.
Mr. Conason describes a conversation in the early months of Mrs. Clinton’s tenure at the State Department at a small dinner party hosted by Madeleine Albright, another former secretary of state, at her home in Washington. Henry Kissinger and Condoleezza Rice also attended.
“Toward the end of the evening, over dessert, Albright asked all of the former secretaries to offer one salient bit of counsel to the nation’s next top diplomat,” Mr. Conason writes. “Powell told her to use her own email, as he had done, except for classified communications, which he had sent and received via a State Department computer.”
Mr. Conason continued, “Saying that his use of personal email had been transformative for the department,” Mr. Powell “thus confirmed a decision she had made months earlier — to keep her personal account and use it for most messages.”
A longtime defender of the Clintons, Mr. Conason interviewed both Mr. and Mrs. Clinton for the book, a granular account of the years since Mr. Clinton left office that will be published on Sept. 13.

President Obama is stirring resentment over his refusal to interrupt his Martha’s Vineyard vacation to survey the Louisiana flood — the worst U.S. natural disaster since 2012 — while drawing comparisons to President George W. Bush’s hotly criticized response to Hurricane Katrina in the same state.
Mr. Obama’s lack of urgency is drawing unflattering parallels to the federal response in 2005, when Mr. Bush was branded as uncaring and even racist for not touching down during a flyover two days after Hurricane Katrina
Not only has Mr. Obama refused to cut short his golfing vacation, but he also has issued no public or written statements about the crisis, which has been dubbed the Louisiana Flood of 2016.
The Advocate newspaper in Baton Rouge opened the floodgates Thursday by urging Mr. Obama to cut his vacation short and bring badly needed attention to the disaster, which has claimed 13 lives and damaged 40,000 homes after a series of storms that unleashed nearly 3 feet of rain. “Vacation or not, a hurting Louisiana needs you now, Mr. President,” said the headline. “We’ve seen this story before in Louisiana, and we don’t deserve a sequel,” the editorial said. “In 2005, a flyover by a vacationing President George W. Bush became a symbol of official neglect for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The current president was among those making political hay out of Bush’s aloofness.”
The newspaper noted that Mr. Obama did stray Monday from Martha’s Vineyard, described as a “playground for the posh and well-connected,” to attend a nearby fundraiser for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. “I think when you need presidential leadership, you need presidential leadership, and when you sign up to be president, you sign up for a 24/7 job,” Advocate Editor Peter Kovacs said on CNN.

Analysis: Despite the polls, the game isn't over for Trump

The polling as of late is admittedly fairly bleak for the Trump campaign. The latest RealClearPolitics average of polls has Donald Trump down six points, 41.2% to 47.2%. […]
But all is not lost — at least not yet — say experts, who argue the Republican nominee still has time to close the gap on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. […]
… (T)wo models, the Time for Change model and Primary model show Trump the odds-on favorite to win in November.
The latter model shows Trump winning by a comfortable margin of 5 points, and has an 87% level of confidence. This model has correctly predicted every election since it was first employed in 1996. …

The Communist Party USA — yes, it still exists — has officially joined the bi-partisan Donald Trump circle jerk.
In an email yesterday titled, “Tell the GOP To Dump Trump”, social media coordinator Joe Sims told subscribers that, “some in the GOP are moving away from his campaign particularly in foreign policy and security circles reflecting an important split within the ruling class.”
He was probably referring to the August 8 open letter attacking Trump signed by 50 GOP national security establishment types, including two George W. Bush former DHS secretaries, plus ex-State and Defense Department top officials. They called the GOP nominee “dangerous” and forswear voting for him.
Washington Times reporter Rowan Scarborough noted that the signatories included, “consulting firm chief executive officers, law firm corporate advisers, lobbyists, investors and think tank analysts. They trade on their government experience and a $4 trillion federal budget to win clients and make lots of money” but worry Trump could hurt business.

Trump will do what Obama won't: Visit Louisiana

Hours after the Obama administration announced the president would not head to Louisiana to tour the devastation left behind by massive flooding, Donald Trump's campaign said late Thursday the GOP nominee will spend the following day visiting and helping the tens of thousands of victims.
Fox News political correspondent Carl Cameron confirmed Thursday from a Trump rally in Charlotte, N.C., that the billionaire businessman will head to the Pelican State Friday.
"I would like to take a moment to talk about the heart break and devastation in Louisiana, a state that is very, very special to me. We are one nation. When one state hurts, we all hurt. And we must all

The Bizarre Media Blackout Of Hacked George Soros Documents

Scandal: Leaked documents released a few days ago provide juicy insider details of how a fabulously rich businessman has been using his money to influence elections in Europe, underwrite an extremist group, target U.S. citizens who disagreed with him, dictate foreign policy, and try to sway a Supreme Court ruling, among other things. Pretty compelling stuff, right?
Not if it involves leftist billionaire George Soros. In this case, the mainstream press couldn't care less.
On Saturday, a group called DC Leaks posted more than 2,500 documents going back to 2008 that it pilfered from Soros' Open Society Foundations' servers. Since then, the mainstream media have shown zero interest in this gold mine of information.
We couldn't find a single story on the New York Times, CNN, Washington Post, CBS News or other major news sites that even noted the existence of these leaked documents, let alone reported on what's in them.

Opinion: Six myths about the U.S. economy that are just plain wrong [WAGES & GROWTH UP, DEBT DOWN]

1. The economy is merely “trudging along” at stall speed, so stocks are vulnerable
This misperception is forgivable, given that U.S. GDP growth came in at around 1% for the first and second quarters.
But to really understand the economy, you have to drill down on a lot more numbers than just GDP. And when you do so, the weak GDP numbers seem fishy. They just don’t jibe...
* Employment growth is strong ...
* Loan growth is robust...
* Wage growth is solid.
* Consumer spending is strong...
The upshot? “Concern over the economy’s performance is running high, but it is misplaced...
2. No one has gotten a raise in several decades
Donald Trump loves this one...
But there’s just one little problem here. The “stagnant wage” claim is just not true...
3. People are angry and worried about the sluggish economy, so they support Trump...
...If people are bitter and worried about the economy, they sure don’t show it in their spending habits...
4. We are a nation that’s drowning in debt
There’s little doubt this is true for the federal government. But be skeptical of anyone who extends this concept to the private sector...
5. Low oil prices devastated the oil patch, hurting jobs growth overall
This was one of the fears when oil prices tanked. But this fear has not played out...
6. Technology helps us get more done at work ...dvances in technology make it easier to goof off than... ...the economy is near full employment and it’s harder to fill jobs.
But one caveat is in order: The first year of a presidential term often brings a recession, especially when the party in power changes. So if Trump catches up to Clinton and wins in November, look out.